1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an air-conditioning system for a vehicle that conditions the air in the cabin of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Air-conditioning systems for vehicles normally adopt a transverse arrangement having an air blower unit, a cooler unit and a heater unit all set along the width of the vehicle in the related art. However, the on-vehicle computer, the in-cabin CD changer and the air bags, with which a vehicle typically comes equipped today, limit the space under the instrument panel that the transverse air-conditioning system is allowed to take up, and for this reason, the air-conditioning system in the vehicle needs to be miniaturized in all directions, not just along the longitudinal direction extending between the front and the rear of the vehicle.
The concept of reducing the size of an automotive air-conditioning system adopting the transverse arrangement by setting an evaporator at an 80° inclination relative to the width of the vehicle relative to the longitudinal direction extending from the front through the rear of the vehicle and thus reducing the space occupied by the evaporator along the longitudinal direction in the vehicle has been proposed in the related art (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-5428). In another example of the related art proposed to achieve miniaturization, a blower offset semi-center arrangement, in which a blower unit that blows the air inside and outside the cabin to an evaporator is set next to an integrated air-conditioning unit having the evaporator and a heater core disposed vertically over two stages one on top of the other, to reduce the installation space, is adopted (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H8-142640). In yet another example of the related art, the joint portion (parting line) of the evaporator case is formed at the bottom plate of the evaporator case so as to extend along the longitudinal direction further outward relative to the side surface of the evaporator on the side opposite from the drain in order to prevent seepage of condensed water through the joint portion (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-338020).
While the connecting portions X and Y where the blower unit, the cooler unit and the heater unit are connected retain air-tightness through packing or the like in the air-conditioning system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-5428 described above, the connecting portions X and Y are always set along the vertical direction and thus, there is a risk of condensed: water leakage. There is a risk of condensed water leakage in the air-conditioning system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H8-142640, as well, since the joint portion over which the air-conditioning unit and the blower unit are joined with each other extends along the vertical direction. In the air-conditioning system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-338020 in which the parting line is present at the bottom, depending upon the manner in which condensed water accumulates, it may flow toward the parting line to result in water leakage even though the parting line is set further outward relative to the side surface of the evaporator. The evaporator case, which is normally constituted of a resin case member, often has a longitudinal parting line to accommodate the two-section structure and thus, the risk of water leakage is inherent.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to improve the reliability and contribute to a cost reduction by forming an integrated housing case for housing the blower and the evaporator are housed as an integrated unit to completely prevent leakage of condensed water in an automotive air-conditioning system adopting the semi-center arrangement with the evaporator and heater core disposed one on top of the other and the air blower provided on a side of the evaporator and heater core, to prevent damage caused by insufficient rigidity when transporting the air-conditioning system and also to improve the vibration resistance of the air-conditioning system.